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Pièces humoristiques, Op 87

Introduction

Chaminade’s Pierrette is a feisty young lady, all flounces and ruffles, her gay insouciance contrasted by Autrefois, a charming pastiche evoking former times and, once again, Scarlatti’s alternating exuberance and introspection.

'Jacobs treats the music with affection, but also respect; he's served by an excellent recording' (BBC Music Magazine Top 1000 CDs Guide)'Well worth the attention of those who enjoy piano music that seeks merely to soothe, charm and enchant' (Gramophone)» More

'As in the previous volumes, Peter Jacobs shows himself to be fluent, clean-fingered, elegantly delicate where required, and able to invest the music ...'As in the previous volumes, Peter Jacobs shows himself to be fluent, clean-fingered, elegantly delicate where required, and able to invest the music ...» More

Details

Sous bois is one of the Op 87 Pièces humoristiques that proves more lyrical than humorous. No French composer for the piano could be unaware, in using this title, of the seductive Sous bois of Chabrier in his epoch-making Pièces pittoresques (the same set of course, contains the ‘Scherzo-valse’ of French piano literature). But Chaminade’s piece relates more to her own characteristic procedures. Compare the opening with that of the early Pièce romantique. Gesture and texture are almost the same, but a much more extended movement develops from these very similar premises: a melodious intermezzo whose central span is enriched by what seems like the distant pealing of bells.

Inquiétude (‘Anxiety’) is the third of Chaminade’s Pièces humoristiques. The fluttering pulse of the outer sections gives way to a central episode of heavy staccato chords, quite low in the register, perhaps to be understood as pounding heartbeats. Chaminade dedicated this piece to Rudolph Ganz, the (Swiss-born) American pianist and conductor who championed French music in America.

Autrefois is a mature essay in mock-Baroque (this is No 4 of Chaminade’s Pièces humoristiques, Op 87, published in 1897). Here a gentle country-dance tune, with lyrical decoration, contrasts with a brilliant toccata-like middle section featuring some sparkling arpeggio writing.

The B major Consolation, the fifth of the set of Op 87 Pièces humoristiques, is something serious, testifying to this composer’s intelligent absorption of the manners, and something of the matter, of great elder contemporaries. The undulating left-hand pattern and the lapping right-hand notes hint at a barcarolle rhythm which is intensified in the gorgeously Fauréan middle section, recalled in the piece’s closing bars. Liszt, rather than Fauré is, however, the presiding spirit here, nowhere more so than in the glittering little transition back to the main idea.